Things I don't understand.

KikiteNeko

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I know there are some phrases and whatnot that are so well integrated into everyday society that we often don't question them. But one thing I never understood is the phrase, "Selling like hotcakes" as in "I am super awesome and my bestselling novel is selling like hotcakes!" (hey, we can dream, right?)

Where did this expression come from? How quickly do hotcakes sell, and what makes them more in demand than waffles, or omlettes, or french toast? Who deemed hotcakes the breakfast diety? I have been to IHOP on several occassions and have never seen a high demand for hotcakes. In fact, does anyone here have a sales report on hotcakes? Because I'm fairly certain their sales record is on par with your average morning meal.

Okay, so it's not exactly an armchair theory, but I'd welcome any theories about this. Also, what are some things you don't understand?
 

robeiae

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Well, the expression is really "selling like hot cakes." It's still about pancakes, but the meaning is that they sold better right off the griddle. You know, like "get 'em while they're hot!"
 

GeorgeK

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I may be wrong, but I think the saying goes back to a fair somewhere between the Revolutionary and Civil Wars where they were sold as a cheap, easy, quick confection as opposed to true pastries which are tempermental when it comes to weather phenomena.
 

Ken

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...an alternate for this is "flying off the shelves." (Not used much with the economy being what it is.)
 

rhymegirl

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Well, the expression is really "selling like hot cakes." It's still about pancakes, but the meaning is that they sold better right off the griddle. You know, like "get 'em while they're hot!"

Thanks.

Now I'm hungry for some pancakes.
 

A. Hamilton

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we had pancakes for dinner just the other night.
 

Wayne K

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SELL LIKE HOT CAKES - "Hot cakes cooked in bear grease or pork lard were popular from earliest times in American. First made of cornmeal, the griddle cakes or pancakes were of course best when served piping hot and were often sold at church benefits, fairs, and other functions. So popular were they that by the beginning of the 19th century 'to sell like hot cakes' was a familiar expression for anything that sold very quickly effortlessly, and in quantity." From "Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins" by Robert Hendrickson (Facts on File, New York, 1997)
This is what I found on it.
 

CaroGirl

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How about "here's mud in your eye"? I mean, that can't be good.

Or "break a leg." How's that supposed to bring a performer good luck? Don't most performers need BOTH their legs?
 

A. Hamilton

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bear grease pan cakes
oh my
there can't possibly be enough maple syrup, anywhere
 

A. Hamilton

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once in Jr. High a friend offered me a piece of what looked like chicken from her bag lunch. I told her it was delicious, and she told me it was her bunny "Sport' or whatever his name was. the one we had been petting just the weekend before at her ranch. he was a prizewinner at the recent county fair. and pretty good lunch.

I wonder if they make bunnygrease pancakes...
 

KikiteNeko

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I prefer not to pet my food.

once in Jr. High a friend offered me a piece of what looked like chicken from her bag lunch. I told her it was delicious, and she told me it was her bunny "Sport' or whatever his name was. the one we had been petting just the weekend before at her ranch. he was a prizewinner at the recent county fair. and pretty good lunch.

I wonder if they make bunnygrease pancakes...